ONC Selects Noam Arzt to serve on the Trusted Exchange Framework Task Force
The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) has selected Dr. Noam H. Arzt, President of HLN Consulting (HLN), as a member of the Trusted Exchange Framework Task Force. This group of healthcare and health information technology specialists will advise ONC on various aspects of the Draft Trusted Exchange Framework. This framework outlines a common set of principles for trusted exchange of health information records and minimum terms and conditions for trusted exchange as directed by Congress in the 21st Century Cures Act.
The task force is expected to consider a number of important implementation issues for the framework, including the nature of the coordinating body that ONC envisions for this activity (the Recognized Coordinating Entity, or RCE); the definition, attributes, and functioning of the organizations that will operate within this framework to exchange data (the Qualified Health Information Networks, or QHINs); issues related to privacy and security that must be understood and settled before interoperability can take place; and determination of exactly what activities and uses will be supported by the network.
Dr. Arzt has been a vocal proponent of health data interoperability and health information exchange for many years, with particular emphasis on public health’s needs and activities. Dr. Arzt has written extensively on the challenges and potential solutions to interoperability, including The Interoperability of Things which describes why interoperability in the US seems so hard to achieve. In a recent blog post (HIE: The New Landscape), Dr. Arzt described the state of health information exchange today and the changes that have taken place since Federal funding under the HITECH Act ended. He has also written key articles on important issues in health information technology such as information blocking, the state of patient matching strategy in the US, and cloud computing.
Dr. Arzt recently submitted public comments related to TEFCA on behalf of HLN, and participated in the responses developed and submitted by key organizations including the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA), American Medical Informatics Associations (AMIA), Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), and the Joint Public Health Informatics Task Force (JPHIT).